A DECADE OF GROWLING BEAR CUBS

Today marks ten years over at Dovbear's place. Which is a remarkable milestone in the evanescent internet world, and I encourage you to head on over and congratulate the ursine. Not many blogs last that long, or have such an argumentative and fractious commenter-base. The remarkably thing is that discussions in the comment-string are passionate, opinionated, and in contrast to almost every discussion elsewhere both insult and obscenity free. The vast majority of readers react on a level not often attained under newspaper articles or youtube videos, and entirely unlike Yelp reviews, the slagging and falsehoods presented by biased trolls are hard to find.

Dovbear's blog presents a discussion of Jewish material, and subjects of interest to Jews though not limited strictly to the interests of Jews.
It is, in the truest sense, a market place of ideas.

Kudos. Ten more years.
And congratulations.
.

Dovbear wrote: "The only mission in the beginning was to keep things short and funny, if possible. The idea behind the first blog posts were that they were potato chips. I was going to write things that could be consumed quickly and easily and that would make people come back for more (even if what they were coming back for was not nec. good for them) I didn't really get into religion and theology until after the Slifkin ban, which outraged me and was my first real cause, and until I met people like Godol Hador who got me thinking in those directions in a more organized way. I think my very first post was about aidel meidel!"
[End cite.]


I discovered the J-blogs in March of 2005. By May I was a regular reader of Dovbear, Jameel, Renegade Rebbetzin, Gadol Hador (several iterations), Steg, and Mar Gavriel, inter alia (anyone remember the LabRab?).
By October 2005, because I needed a place to park blog links, I started my own blog. Largely inspired by the people and their commenters I read on a daily basis. Nine years later, I am still gibbering. Thank you, Dov.


Another formative influence was Rabbi Pinky Schmeckelstein. In great part because of his witty and often riotously disturbing weekly shiurim on the parsha, I had headed into the wilds of the internet looking for Jewish material.
Dovbear was a nexus. Steg quirked the linguistic mind and provided keen insights (in addition to Middle-Earthian notes). MarGavriel was a fount of references and eccentric phonetic spellings of Hebrew, Yiddish, and Aramaic. And Latin, because that was also one of his many in-depth interests. Renegade Rebbetzin was funny and insightful, the Gadol Hador often infuriating, often mind-expanding, never dull. Jameel at the Muqata was the thoughtful voice of good people facing ridiculous circumstances, and the LabRab presented a profoundly decent point of view.


"I have learned much from my teachers, even more from my friends and colleagues..."

[Rabbi Yehuda Ha Nasi]


There are of course many other people whose thoughts and insights are a pleasure. In particular I would mention e-kvetcher, who is going through a dry-spell, and Midianite Manna, who unfortunately hasn't written for well over a year now.
They, and almost all the others, are in the blogroll on the right.
Perhaps more than my own scribbling they show what interests me, and what I value, as well as matters of intrigue, fascination, and entertainment.

Read.




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